As Unpredictable as Rain
“It’s you sitting on another man’s bed, noona.”
Je-yoon smirked with sly amusement and tugged Yeon-ha’s wrist. With a soft plop, dust that had settled on the blanket rose and drifted. Orange sunlight poured through the large window and washed over them both.
“And now you’re lying down.”
Je-yoon only smiled brighter, utterly unbothered by the sharp look she gave him.
“You’re the one who pulled me down.”
Yeon-ha answered dryly and shook her head, turning her gaze to the ceiling. It had been a long time since she’d lain on Je-yoon’s bed, yet it was still just as comfortable.
It had been the same when they were young. She had always preferred his room to her own vast, empty one. His was just the right size—not too big—and every object placed inside it spoke clearly of his tastes.
Her own room, papered in pure white or low-saturation furniture, could look almost bland. She had tried filling the walls with photographs, but the barren feeling never left. So whenever a nameless loneliness crept over her, she would slip into Je-yoon’s room and roll around on this very bed.
When she turned onto her side, their toes gathered toward each other as if drawn. Beyond them the deep-green wall filled her vision.
The tropical atmosphere Je-yoon had once loved still lingered exactly as it had been, giving the uncanny sense that time itself had stopped.
An orange lamp, a pot of blue-green leaves spreading like palm fronds, an LP player, and a neat row of little bear art toys collected during his modeling days stood in quiet order.
Watching the arrangement and color palette shift little by little with each season and phase had always been quietly delightful. Like Je-yoon’s many-faceted charm, the room that reflected his taste was a peacock of its own.
After leaving this house she had lived surrounded by strangers and unfamiliar situations. Duties and responsibilities only multiplied, while everything once familiar drifted farther away.
So much had changed—yet some things never did. Like Je-yoon, who had always remained by her side.
I like it here.
The gentle atmosphere made her body grow languid. She wanted to stay a little longer, looking and feeling this place where time seemed paused. Her own room was still the same, yet here, with Je-yoon present, she felt as if she were lingering inside a memory. The peace was strangely complete.
Yeon-ha let the tension leave her body for a moment.
“……”
Je-yoon’s fingertips brushed slowly across the sheet—hovering near her hand, almost touching, then hesitating.
A quiet greed to close that last fraction of distance lifted its head. His sharp gaze traveled slowly over Yeon-ha’s face.
“What are you thinking about…”
He murmured low, glancing once at her tightly closed lips before tracing the elegant line of her nose upward.
Her eyes had gone a little unfocused; seeing her guard drop so completely on his bed sent a dangerous thought curling through him.
His fingertips itched. The urge to touch Song Yeon-ha simmered hot and restless inside him.
A little closer to noona…
Je-yoon’s Adam’s apple rose and fell in a slow swallow. The fingers that had been circling near her hand finally brushed her fingertips with a soft, deliberate tap.
I’m going crazy.
When they were children they had held hands and lain here just like this. There had even been nights he had promised to put her to sleep, lying face-to-face exactly as they were now.
Je-yoon frowned, feeling how little composure remained inside him, and steadied his breathing. He lightly touched the motionless tips of her fingers again.
When she still didn’t move, he grew bolder and tapped the pad of his index finger against hers. Yeon-ha simply stared at the wall, as if she hadn’t even noticed the contact.
“Am I that boring to be with?”
He muttered the joke to himself, but she kept gazing blankly at the wall. She had no idea how maddening she became whenever she drifted off like this.
“You keep looking everywhere else. Yeah? Is that it, noona?”
He wanted to catch her chin and force her eyes onto him—yet the sight of her lost in thought was beautiful in its own way, so he let her stay.
Je-yoon kept brushing her dangling fingers with his own, waiting only for her to look at him.
“Don’t touch me.”
Before long Yeon-ha pushed his fingers away. In the brief stretch of her distraction he had been gently scratching the back of her hand.
“You awake now?”
“I wasn’t sleeping.”
“I thought you were showing off some special talent for sleeping with your eyes open.”
At the teasing lilt in his voice Yeon-ha huffed a quiet laugh.
“Don’t say weird things. I was thinking of sticking a photo under Uncle’s banner. Figured he might as well take one he likes.”
“Dad would love anything you give him.”
Je-yoon sat up slowly and reached out as if he meant to leave. Yeon-ha shook her head and gathered the photograph she had set beside her.
“If you’re not going to give that to me, I’ll just take a picture with my phone.”
“This? What’s so special about this photo?”
Yeon-ha looked up at him with an expression that said she truly could not understand his obsession with the image.
“Go ahead and take it.”
The moment she held the photo out he immediately opened his camera and snapped it.
“What’s on it? Something really important.”
“What on earth…”
Yeon-ha lowered her face to study the picture. She honestly couldn’t see it—what was so important? Why this photo? There were better ones.
While she tilted her head in confusion, Je-yoon’s arm settled lightly across her shoulders. The sudden warmth made her flinch. Was he simply used to casual touch… or just unbothered?
She glanced at the hand that had come over her shoulder. It was large enough to swallow her own completely; the tendons that stood out with every small movement kept snaring her eyes. Heat rose unbidden in her chest.
“It’s hot…”
“Hot?”
The instant the word left her mouth Je-yoon began fanning her with his hand. The slight furrow between his brows, the gentle flutter of his fingers, the deep look in his eyes, the faint parting of his lips—
“…Even hotter.”
Yeon-ha stepped back and left the room so quickly he had no chance to catch her.
Je-yoon followed at once, but the entire way to the management building she refused to look at him, only fluttering the hem of her shirt for air.
“Noona, doing that is a little dangerous.”
“Why?”
“From here the view is… well.”
At his oddly phrased warning Yeon-ha followed his gaze and looked down. She had only undone two buttons the way she always did.
What could possibly— She fluttered the shirt again without thinking and froze at the clear view of her own chest.
“Don’t pull it like that. Everything shows.”
Je-yoon’s voice sounded flustered, yet his eyes drifted once more to the pale skin.
“Really dangerous.”
“……”
He covered his eyes with one hand, deliberately turning his head the other way, and pushed her hand with his arm. Only after she pressed her palm over her chest did she understand what he meant.
“You… saw?”
“I did see. That’s why I said something.”
“……”
Through the gaps between his fingers he glimpsed her face—like a clear drop of rose water fallen onto white paper. And that face always put him to the test.
That bastard left a Song Yeon-ha like this…
No matter how much she pretended indifference, no matter that she herself had wanted the divorce, she was still human. Witnessing her husband’s affair could not have left her unhurt.
Only… Song Yeon-ha was simply practiced at hiding her heart.
Je-yoon seized her hand without warning.
“Don’t worry about it. Forgot I’m a model? I’ve seen plenty. Doesn’t faze me.”
Yeon-ha looked back at him. Watching him grin and shrug, a water droplet landed on the bridge of her nose. Je-yoon tipped his head back as he watched it roll down the elegant line.
The masculine curve of his throat was laid bare. Her eyes caught on the sharp jut of his Adam’s apple.
Then—“Raindrops! Run!”—Je-yoon pulled her close. One hand gripped her shoulder while the other shielded her head from the falling rain.
The two of them ran across the soaking grass in nothing but slippers.
Yeon-ha matched his stride, feeling the cold droplets slip between her toes, the tickle of wet grass underfoot, and the warmth of Je-yoon’s hand taking the rain in her place.
Somewhere deep in buried memory there had been a moment like this too. Well—half her life had been spent with Je-yoon; finding a memory without him might actually be harder.
The strange sense of having stepped back into the past tugged the corner of her mouth upward. That pleasant flutter in her chest was probably for the same reason.
Yeon-ha covered the back of his hand with her own.
For the way he shielded her with his whole body, this much at least she wanted to give back.
“Wow, it’s farther than I thought. Ah—completely soaked.”
Je-yoon brushed the raindrops from her hair and shoulders. The water cascading from the eaves of the management building grew louder, a rushing sheet. Yeon-ha caught her breath and frowned slightly at the sky.
“I thought it was supposed to come later.”
“They say weather and love are the two things you can never predict.”
“Who says that?”
A low chuckle sounded behind her. She wanted to turn, but the path under the eaves was so narrow a single misstep would send her sliding. Yeon-ha kept her eyes on her own feet and waited for his answer.
“Someone really famous.”
“Who’s the famous person?”
“Curious?”
Yeon-ha nodded—and just as she rounded the corner her wet slipper soles skidded. Her body tilted. Je-yoon’s hand shot out and caught her firmly around the waist.
“Careful.”
His palm covered half her side and lower stomach. Her breath caught short.
Hot—summer hadn’t even fully arrived, so why was it this warm? Because of the rain? The humidity…?
“Said it came from personal experience.”
A distinctly pleased voice floated above her head. The entrance to the management building was right around this last corner. Not far away the mouth-watering scent of the savory pancakes Uncle loved—and other delicious food—drifted toward them.
Yeon-ha glanced back at Je-yoon and swallowed hard. She couldn’t tell whether the sudden dryness in her throat came from the food smells or from the way he was quietly pinning her in place.
When the chill of the wall touched her back, Je-yoon’s hand slid into the space. The warmth spreading across her spine scattered her breath.
“So who was it?”
“Hmm.”
She could see how thoroughly the rain had soaked his back because he refused to take shelter. Yeon-ha edged sideways a little and tugged at his collar.
“Who is it that you’re dragging this out so much? Come over here.”
Je-yoon, who hadn’t moved an inch, kept standing in the rain and braced one hand on the wall as he slowly closed the distance.
“It’s a secret. I’ll only tell noona.”
His warm breath brushed near her forehead. Yeon-ha, arms hanging loosely at her sides, absently rubbed the side of her index finger with her thumb.
Too close.
Then again, maybe this distance didn’t even count as close to Je-yoon. At work he must stand this near other people of the opposite sex all the time.
Still… the feeling kept twisting strangely inside her. An emotion as hard to define as this rain, as impossible to pin down, kept swelling larger.
Yeon-ha subtly shifted her gaze. When she blinked once, a raindrop clinging to the tip of her lashes fell. In that same instant the downpour strengthened, and water that had soaked the back of his hair streamed down the smooth line of his neck.
What if he catches a cold…
Yeon-ha gripped the sides of his waist with both hands and pulled him closer. At the same moment Je-yoon lowered his voice to a whisper against her ear.
“Me.”
While he spoke, thunder cracked once overhead.
“Who?”
Unable to catch the answer properly, Yeon-ha turned her head toward the man speaking right against her ear. In that instant her soft lips brushed and pressed against some part of Je-yoon.
“…Ah. Noona.”
At the low sound that escaped him, Yeon-ha’s eyes flew wide.